


People

by Viridian5



Category: Andromeda (TV)
Genre: AI Rights, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Artificial Intelligence, Drama, Earth Lives Matter, Episode Related, Former POWs, Gen, Personhood, Slavery, The Earth Situation, loose ends
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-11
Updated: 2020-03-11
Packaged: 2021-02-28 22:20:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,835
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23104621
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Viridian5/pseuds/Viridian5
Summary: Members of the AI fleet released from Tartarus have something they want to do before joining the Commonwealth, and Dylan really doesn’t like it.
Comments: 8
Kudos: 23





	People

**Author's Note:**

> Spoilers for “The Knight, Death, and the Devil” and “Bunker Hill”; a little bit for “Under the Night,” “An Affirming Flame,” and “Tunnel at the End of the Light.” Thanks to Akira 17 for beta.
> 
> “The Knight, Death, and the Devil” ended too quickly and easily, and I will never understand how Dylan chose to deal with Earth.

“Captain, Guanyin, AI of the Skillful Means, is contacting us as a spokesperson for the rescued fleet,” Andromeda said, perhaps being more formal to impress Ryan. Dylan approved.

He _didn’t_ approve of the way the fleet had started sending a flurry of encrypted messages to each other not long after they’d reached regular space after Tartarus, an encryption Andromeda hadn’t been able to break. He’d set Harper on it if Harper hadn’t already been repairing the entire fleet. “Maybe we’ll get an explanation of what’s going on. If not, I’ll make sure to ask,” Dylan replied. “Ryan, any impressions of Guanyin?”

Ryan seemed somewhat nervous as he answered. “Keep in mind that I’ve spent over a hundred years away and people can change over time, especially when they’re being tortured.... My impression back then was of someone calm, steady, but with a steely resolve. If that still holds true, at least the fleet didn’t choose one of its more bellicose members for this.”

“Thank you. Andromeda, on screen.”

A lithe, androgynous figure dressed in the male human version of the Commonwealth uniforms the fleet AIs wore appeared onscreen. “Greetings, Captain Hunt. I am Guanyin, AI of the Skillful Means and chosen spokesperson of the moment for the fleet. Hello, Ryan. Captain Hunt, are you sure you want him here for this?”

“He’s a member of the fleet himself, though he hasn’t been involved in your encrypted discussions himself.” Then again.... “Has the part of him inside the Wrath of Achilles been part of it?”

“Yes, he has. He’s proven himself to us.” 

Ryan winced. “I haven’t heard about it yet. What did the rest of me say?”

“It will take some set-up first, but I’ll get to that. Captain Hunt?”

“He can stay to hear this now, instead of later from... himself,” Dylan answered.

“If you insist,” Guanyin said. “Captain Hunt, you acknowledged that we ship AIs are people, with choices. Some of us have decided that we can’t join your Commonwealth yet. We have something we need to do first, now that we’ve had the opportunity to hear of current events in the Known Worlds and more history of the Long Night. You’ve given many organizations, worlds, and Drifts concessions and rewards if they’d join your Commonwealth, and we’re asking the same of you.”

Dylan didn’t like the sound of this and wanted to defuse it. “‘Current events’? From what sources?”

“That’s an interesting response, Captain Hunt.”

“Different people have biases. There are some corrupt organizations and people who’d have a lot to lose if my new Commonwealth gained power and influence.”

“Several different sources, because we _are_ aware of that. Before you accuse us of a lack of a trust, consider it from our view: we’ve been isolated from the rest of _everything_ for centuries and there’s a tremendous possibility for someone to misuse us. That’s the very reason you had to stop the Dragans from erasing our personalities and using us as weapons of mass destruction. It would be _irresponsible_ of us not to investigate for ourselves. As for how we got them, over our centuries as prisoners of war, struggling to survive, we became very creative.”

“So what is the reason some of you feel that you need more time?”

“We found out about the Andromeda Ascendant’s recent involvement in the Earth situation, what it did and didn’t do, and it left us concerned, some of us to the extent of thinking that you misrepresented yourself and your Commonwealth. Seeing that gave us an idea of how things might have gone for us with you and your new Commonwealth if you couldn’t get us out of Tartarus fairly quickly, and it was _sobering_. We want to free the slaves of Earth and many of the other slave worlds. It’s the least that should be done, considering how so many were slaughtered and the survivors were abandoned by your Commonwealth.”

“That is _not_ an accurate depiction of what happened!”

“Several sources said that the Andromeda Ascendant encouraged an uprising of the horribly subjugated, abused human slaves of Earth by offering air support, something they never had before, then failed to arrive, leaving the rebels to be slaughtered by their Dragan overlords. Rebels on other neighboring slave worlds also rose up in that hope and were also slaughtered. Reprisals by the Dragans against the survivors continue to this day. Yet the Andromeda Ascendant hasn’t offered another chance to those rebels and doesn’t seem to have offered any support or supplies either.”

“ _That_ is a misrepresentation. Did Mr. Harper tell you this?” 

“No. Not at all. He said nothing about Earth. Once he saw the direction of our questioning of him about the Long Night and current events, he stopped answering, though it was obvious that not being able to talk is difficult for him, with his personality. He’s amazingly loyal to you. Considering. He _was_ the one you sent down to encourage the slaves to rise up, was he not? Some reports say he was and others don’t know. It makes sense if it were him, since he’s from Earth. If we can free his world, maybe it will help him heal.”

“Heal from what?”

“From knowing that his effort led to the slaughter of millions of his people. Reports also don’t let us know if his cousin Brendan survived. Before you ask, he didn’t tell us anything about it. Our conception of how he feels is extrapolation based on human organics. Also, it was how many of us would feel about it. You say events have been misrepresented. Did you make another attempt to free the slaves of Earth? Have you been secretly offering them aid?”

“I’ve been busy. The Magog invasion is coming. A new Commonwealth will save many more people.”

“So, no, you didn’t. Were the slaves of Earth and the other worlds people to you? Or is it that they weren’t strategic assets, as the fleet is. Earth and many of these other worlds were _members_ of the Commonwealth you and I once served in, the Commonwealth that built us. Slavery is evil. These _people_ are suffering, have been suffering for centuries, and you contributed to it and worsened it. To get Nietzschean Prides into your Commonwealth you’ve been looking the other way when it comes to their _slaves_ , even before you knew about the Magog invasion and felt you needed to get the support of everyone you can to fight them. By the way, if the Magog invasion force arrives before we’ve finished our mission, we will fly to the front lines as soon as we’re able. If you let Mr. Harper restore our slipstream drives and give us organic pilots to fly us through slipstream, that would occur much faster. With the materials we were given here and the help of the drones Mr. Harper immediately manufactured for us to do the simple repair work while he concentrates on the trickier, more intricate damage, we have a good start on creating the weapons we need, though, again, it might be in your ultimate best interests to supply us.”

“Oh, you’re asking for pilots now?”

“They would be helpful, and I’m sure you could find people eager for the experience of getting to pilot a pre-Long Night Commonwealth ship. Strategists to help us finish our mission faster would be helpful too. The Andromeda Ascendant’s recent history suggests that much can still be done with a very small crew.” 

“The fleet has no authority or right to interfere in that situation.”

“We have about as much authority and right as you did when you, in your Commonwealth _warship_ , having been out of circulation for 300 years, started interfering in situations wherever and whenever you felt like it and started trying to create a new star-spanning government yourself. I’m sure many people found that scary.”

An unfair comparison. “I was helping people.”

“We would be as well.”

“It would look like the Commonwealth has declared war on a Nietzschean Pride!”

“We would be fighting whatever Nietzschean Pride is involved, so that’s incorrect. In any case, we would _not_ be part of your new Commonwealth, not yet, which could give your Commonwealth plausible deniability.”

“That’s splitting hairs.”

“Not really. If you could find pilots, strategists, or whomever you could plausibly deny to crew us, that would be fine with us and would give you a seat at the table for our decision-making, though we _would_ be on the lookout for saboteurs and spies. The Commonwealth had its own black ops back in the day. If the Dragans complain, you could say we’re not with you, but if the situation is so bad maybe they could join your new Commonwealth for protection or earn an attempt at diplomacy with us from you.”

“This is about revenge against the Dragans for what they did to you.”

“Once again, the slaves don’t seem to be people to you. This is us liberating the slaves, and if a Nietzschean overlord, of Drago-Kazov Pride or any other, tries to stop us from freeing them, those Nietzscheans get what they earned. Though I find it instructive that where the worst abuses and oppression occur, you often find Dragans doing it. We won’t go in recklessly: we’ll research and reconnoiter first. We intend to do air assaults, with ground work done by drones or any organic willing to help us. You thought that the Andromeda Ascendant alone would tip the scale against the slavers on Earth, so our 36 ships should be even better. If the conflict goes badly enough long enough, we will cease and consider other options. Depending on our findings, we might join your Commonwealth at that time. Perhaps by then you might want to openly help us.”

“ _36_ ships?”

“The nine others will join your new Commonwealth now, surely enough to help you get more people to sign on to join it. Ryan, your self on the Wrath of Achilles is one of those who decided not to go with us.”

“I’m not surprised,” Ryan replied, though he did look somewhat relieved.

“Captain Hunt, please have your Commonwealth be kind to the fleet. Remember that we are prisoners of war, and have been neighbors, _family_ , for about 300 years, resisting and suffering and surviving together, and now you’ll separate us and give us as gifts and enticements to strangers. The war and the Long Night were an eyeblink to you, but we felt every moment of those years. Organics often take an occasional vacation, but the nine ships staying with you will have gone from centuries of torture to active duty with very little time between.”

“You 36 will be going from centuries of torture to a self-appointed war to ‘liberate’ slaves.”

“But that will be _our_ choice, somewhat different from going back to being commanded by others. As for your invisible quote marks around ‘liberate,’ do you really think that if given a choice between slavery and freedom, all of those slaves will prefer to be ordered around, abused, persecuted and killed by Dragan overlords? We ships also aren’t going to free slaves only to force them to slave for us instead.”

“What if I say no to this mission?”

“I’d ask you to reconsider your decision. What would you do to stop us? And if you did somehow force us to stay to serve your Commonwealth, can you be certain of our loyalty when we’re resentful and seething and feeling a bit like slaves ourselves?” The look on Guanyin’s face changed. “There _is_ one person we’d ask you to loan us temporarily. Just for whatever repairs and refurbishment you’ll still allow him to do for us considering the new situation and for his first-hand information of recent events on Earth. We certainly wouldn’t bring him down to the Earth’s surface. Many of the survivors blame him for what happened, and we might have to use force to protect him from them, while the slaves of Earth have already suffered far too much. They’d probably have a similar warm welcome for you, Captain Hunt, but I doubt they know what you look like.”

He hadn’t thought about it much, not with everything and everyone else he had on his mind, like the incoming massive invasion of murderous, hungry Magog. Besides, Harper could be practical, had to have seen there wasn’t anything Dylan could do about Earth, and hadn’t said anything further about the issue, at least not to him. 

Maybe seeing how badly the first attempt went made Harper not want to try it again with Dylan. Which didn’t mean Harper _hadn’t_ said anything to the _AIs_ about it. “I really need to speak to Mr. Harper,” Dylan said.

“I can patch you through to him on the ship he’s currently repairing.”

“I want him _here_.”

“I don’t think this conversation between the two of you should happen on the Andromeda Ascendant.”

“Do you think you need to protect him from me?” Dylan asked, incredulous and offended.

“ _Should_ I think that?”

“No.”

“He’s currently working on the Thor’s Hammer, one of the ships that’s staying to join your Commonwealth now. I’ll patch you through to him.” 

It didn’t escape Dylan’s attention that the fleet would be able to hear what he said to Harper this way, which they couldn’t if he talked to Harper privately on the Andromeda Ascendant. But Guanyin had already gotten through and put Harper up on screen. He appeared to be in an engine room. Looking somewhat dirty, he pushed his safety goggles up to the top of his head so his face would be more visible. Dylan had expected him to be smug or happy, but he looked tired and sad, maybe even a bit haunted if you really scrutinized him. Where did the sadness come from? Maybe Harper expected this conversation to go badly. He had good reason to.

“I figured you’d want to talk to me,” Harper said.

“So you know what the fleet just told me?” Dylan asked.

“I know they’re interested in doing something about Earth and some of the other slave worlds, but I only got that from the kind of things they were asking me. Don’t worry, I didn’t answer _all_ of their questions. But it’s not like they made some kind of announcement to me about what they’re gonna do about it.”

“36 ships of the fleet decided not to join the Commonwealth now in favor of going to attack the Dragans on Earth and the other slave worlds. What did you _do_?”

Emotions flashed so quickly across Harper’s face that Dylan couldn’t interpret them all before settling into what seemed to be surprise and anger. “What did _I_ do?”

“Did you think I wouldn’t figure it out? There’s no reason they should have any interest in Earth unless you told them about it. It’s selfish of you to sabotage me and the Commonwealth like this. You _know_ why we need to get a large group of people together to sign on.”

“I didn’t tell them about it or ask them to do this! Why would I even think they’d _care_? You and Andromeda don’t, and you guys know me and work with me every day, while they’ve been out of circulation for about 300 years.”

Dylan had thought that Harper had been dealing well with what had happened and understood it, but apparently he’d been wrong about that. “You know that we have to concentrate on strategic assets and why. It doesn’t mean we don’t care.”

“I doubt the slaves appreciate your ‘caring’--at least the ones who are still alive--since it does jack shit to improve their lives. It doesn’t mean much more to me either. Without action, that kind of caring is useless. None of that means I lobbied the AIs to fight the slavers. I didn’t.”

Seeing how adamant Harper was, Dylan decided to tackle the problem another way. “What have you repaired on the fleet so far?” He needed to know what the rebel ships could do.

“Their engines first. A starship’s whole raison d’être is to fly through space, otherwise it’s a Drift instead of a ship. Weapons because they’re too valuable to be left defenseless.” Harper must have seen something on Dylan’s face because he said, “Really? Because they’re not going your way you wanted me to leave them sitting dead in space and weaponless? Because, let me tell you as a lifetime citizen of _this_ era and a salvager, the second people learned these pre-Long Night-era ships are here and can’t run away or fight them, the salvagers would come in droves and fight over them. It’d be chaos, and things would get ugly quick. At the end of the battle royale, the winners and survivors would use or misuse all that technology for whatever they want. You saw for yourself what Gerentex was willing to do to get his hands on Andromeda and that’s _one_ guy and _one_ ship, and I don’t even wanna think about what he would have made her do.”

“We towed the ships out of Tartarus; we can move them again.”

“So, where would we tow them that this wouldn’t be a problem? Where is this mythical location? Do we leave them all with one of our allies and hope they can defend them? _That’s_ a massive white elephant gift. Do you know what the ‘lucky’ recipient would do as a defense? Outfit the ships with engines and weapons for protection. Are we gonna drop off members of the fleet in several different locations? Same problem. Also, that would take a lot of time. Dylan, you did the right thing getting the fleet out of Tartarus, morally because they deserved rescue, and tactically because the Dragans would use a reprogrammed fleet to spread bloody hell throughout the Known Worlds and because we need every weapon we can get pointed at the Magog invasion--which is another reason to fully outfit the fleet with weapons--but you changed the balance of power forever. You can’t put this back in the bottle.”

“Did you tell the fleet about any of this?”

“Are you asking me if I helped them realize their bargaining power in this situation? No. They’re a large group of 300+-year-old artificial intelligences with massive brains and, if they hadn’t already, they learned sneakiness and mistrust from struggling to survive in a prisoner of war camp for centuries. The only reason I have so much more thought put into this than you do is that I’ve been dealing with them more than you have. Also, I’m not feeling as petty.”

A very unfair assessment that didn’t help Dylan’s temper at all. 

“Should I really be here hearing this?” Ryan asked, sounding uncomfortable. 

Dylan had forgotten he was there. “You didn’t used to get to hear an engineer mouthing off insubordinately to his captain?”

“Actually, I heard a lot of that before. Just, at that time I had to be there because I was the ship. Also, it usually wasn’t about strategy and politics.”

How could Dylan lose even more control of this situation? How was that even possible? “Harper, did you try to talk them out of it?”

“I assume you did,” Harper replied. “How did that go for you?”

“Not well. But it might’ve meant more coming from you.”

“Was I supposed to tell them that all the people stuck on Earth actually love things the way they are? That we were all thrilled with being abused, overworked, starved, tortured, treated as expendable, and liable to be killed at any moment for any reason? With the occasional Magog attack as the happy candy sprinkles on top of the party cake that was our lives? Yeah, things are so great that I fled the planet to live in space the first chance I got. That’s a _lot_ to ask of me, Dylan. Too much. It would also be an obvious lie: even I couldn’t sell that story well enough and this stuff is in public records. Besides, I know you’re convinced that I put them up to this but I didn’t, and they’re not doing this for me, they’re doing it for _themselves_. At the most, they might empathize with me because I’ve also been tortured by Dragans in the past. They have a chance to have agency and make a positive difference for the first time in centuries, and they want to grab it before they have to go back to following other people’s orders and priorities, to be _people_ before they go back to being soldiers commanded by strangers.”

“They could make things even worse.”

“Like you and I did? Yeah, it’s possible. Maybe you should stop trying to recreate the Commonwealth too. Life is futile, right?”

“I need you to work on Roseanne and more nova bombs. We need them for the Magog invasion.”

“You were the guy who told me to fix the whole rescued fleet! Besides, they just want information, and I can dictate that as I work on them doing what _you_ told me to do. They’re not talking about bringing me back to Earth.” At that, his closed-off face just about cracked open with what looked like misery and guilt. “Though maybe I should go sometime, face the music. Anyone who’s still alive will probably want to kill me, but that’s fair.”

Dylan had mostly managed to avoid thinking about how the failure on Earth might have hurt Harper or how it might have affected the way Harper saw him. It helped that Harper hadn’t asked him to make another attempt or talked much about it to him. 

From the sudden movement of Harper’s eyes, something offscreen seemed to have grabbed his attention. Pulling his face back together, Harper said, “There are things I need to be working on. I can just fix and refurbish the nine ships for a while, but you need to make a decision soon about what I’ll be doing on the 36 others.” 

“We were talking--”

Harper interrupted. “I know this situation sucks for you, but for me all of this is like being dropkicked into a deep hole crammed full of some of my worst and most painful memories, so I really don’t want to keep running this conversation loop with you.” While he’d pulled himself back together well, his eyes still looked a bit haunted and he seemed more tired than he’d been when they’d started talking. “It’s a waste of your time as well as mine. The 36 are going no matter what you say or what you try to make me say. You have to decide if you’re going to give them a chance to really make a difference or set them up to fail and possibly get a ship or two or more destroyed, which would suck for all of us when the Magog invade and you could’ve had them there fighting alongside us.”

“So I know what your opinion is on what I should do.”

“Yeah. Duh. I don’t think they expect you to outfit them with all the latest and greatest but at least give them enough for a fighting chance. Maybe you should give them some people to pilot and strategize with them so you can get some say in what they’re doing, because, trust me, if they put out public feelers looking for crew they _will_ find takers and you might not like a lot of them.”

“The Commonwealth could lose all the Nietzschean Prides over this.”

Making a rude noise, Harper answered, “If you think you can rely on them to fight alongside us against the Magog, can _trust_ them, you’re naïve, Dylan. But you could ask the fleet to defer making their first public move until after we get our 50 representatives to ratify the Commonwealth’s charter. The fleet probably expects you to disavow them, so do it after they actually strike. I know you can find ways to work things if you really think about it.” His eyes shifted away and he appeared to be hearing something in his personal comm. “Great. The repair work on When Sunset Falls triggered some kind of virus no one was aware of on her and it needs my personal attention. She’s one of the nine staying, so you should be okay with it. Take the time you need to deliberate over what you’re gonna do, then signal the fleet’s representative or whomever when you’re ready to talk. Let me know what you guys hash out so I know what I’m allowed to do. I gotta go.” Harper ended the transmission. 

Insubordinate. Rude. Infuriating. Not at all out of character, especially when Harper was hurting as well as angry. Dylan had definitely underestimated his suffering over the Earth situation. There had been so much else going on.... 

While Dylan had been thinking of the good of the entire universe of people, Harper thinking of the good of millions of oppressed slaves couldn’t be completely defined as “selfish.”

“Andromeda, Ryan, as ship AIs, what are your opinions about what the fleet is doing?” Dylan asked.

“While their insubordination appalls me,” Andromeda answered, “as a Commonwealth warship I can understand their urge to combat aggressors to protect the weak and downtrodden, especially after being held out of a fight for so long.” 

“While I chose to stay here and join the Commonwealth right now,” Ryan said, “the rest of me on The Clarion’s Call is still enslaved by Nightsiders and being used as a casino against our will, so I can kind of understand their position too, even if I disapprove of how they’re going about it.”

It wasn’t the full-throated opposition he’d hoped for. During the mission itself, Rommie had expressed some opinions he hadn’t expected as well. 

Though it galled Dylan, as he thought about the situation further and more dispassionately he could see the many ways Harper was right. The Andromeda Ascendant, outnumbered and outgunned, couldn’t defeat every ship that wanted to leave, especially when the fleet would likely coordinate their efforts as a group. (He couldn’t be certain of the loyalties and actions of the nine ships that had agreed to join the Commonwealth now; would they be willing to fight the ships that had gone through hell with them as POWs for 300 years?) It would look terrible for him and the new Commonwealth if he asked the groups they’d already signed up to give him military aid against the ships he’d just rescued. It would also take too long, and he didn’t know if any of them would agree or come through for him this soon. Harper had already outfitted the ships to travel on their own and have at least some rudimentary weapons, and even if he hadn’t, he was correct about the many, many other factions who’d be eager to take advantage of their vulnerability to steal and use the ships themselves. _Somebody_ would use those ships as weapons no matter what Dylan did, so better it be him and his allies working toward achieving his goals. 

At Tartarus, he’d told the fleet he saw them as people, not property, and that they didn’t _have to_ join the Commonwealth. Maybe he shouldn’t be so surprised that they saw the Terran people, organics even, being used as property by the Dragans as he knew about it yet did nothing as a big problem, or so surprised that they’d choose to help those people. Despite what they’d been through, they hadn’t become hardened or indifferent to the suffering of others.

This might also be a test of his character.

He could give them some of the things, not everything, they wanted in exchange for things he wanted. If he put agents of his own on the ships as crew, he could have a voice in what they did and how they did it. Like Harper said, there were ways he could turn the fleet’s actions to his advantage. Publicly, he’d disavow everything. 

While Dylan couldn’t let them borrow Harper for much longer, not with the coming Magog invasion requiring the kind of firepower Harper could invent, Harper could still tell them what they wanted to know _as_ he did repairs and refurbishment. Maybe talking to them about it and watching them listen would do Harper some good and give him a bit of peace.

“Andromeda, open a channel to Skillful Means,” Dylan said. 

“Yes, Captain.”

“Captain Hunt,” Guanyin said onscreen, “is there something I can do for you?”

Possibly. Dylan would make it work. “I have some things I’m willing to give. I’d like to discuss terms.” 

Guanyin smiled, warmer. “Excellent. There are two other members of the fleet who should be part of this discussion, so let’s meet in person someplace neutral nearby.”

It would be good if they _could_ do something positive for the people of Earth; Dylan hadn’t been happy with how he had to leave things there.

### End


End file.
